Diamonds in the Sky

It is evident that the U.S has gotten old and feeble. China's manufacturing capabilities rivals the West, examples being the robot utopia Shenzhen, the One Belt One Road construction, and artificial islands in the Yellow Sea. Western Europe is in shambles, current prime example being the resignation of Prime Minister May of England and the Brexit fiasco. Even my parent's home country, Bangladesh, a still-developing nation, currently has faster internet than I, living in New York City, the world's most prosperous city.

For a few years now I have been debating with my dad that China will surpass us economically in due time. My father disagrees with me, he argues the US economically will retain its dominance because this spectacle with China is but a different twist of the same drama the U.S had with Japan during/post WWII. But a new piece of information released last week has changed my mind.

NASA has declared the moon exploration by 2024, this time to stay. This is precisely the American inspiration and courage that brought the U.S to their dominance today, and must be continued for the sake of growth. While Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been working on interstellar travel for the masses for over a decade now, this declaration by NASA has changed everything. Asteroid mining will create our first trillionaires, and in space resources are theoretically endless. This means we can easily sustain a population of trillions without consumption restraints.

The lack of space exploration will lead to an accelerated development of technology. Currently the military industrial complex is the US government's biggest expenditure ($5.9 trillion). Once Americans realize the future of our world is in space, will we come together and set aside petty political and ideological differences, to transcend into a new era among the stars.